WEBVTT - What Just Went Down 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.960 A lot went down on Capitol Hill today, a lot 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.440 of which you probably didn't hear about. But one man 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:09.000 was there to do the job of many. He refuted 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:12.520 the Democrats arguments for upending our election system, he shot 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:15.240 down the Democrats arguments for taking all of our guns, 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:19.040 and most impressively of all, he tweeted the whole time. 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:28.480 I'm Michael Knowles, this is verdict with Ted Cruz. Senator Cruz, 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.080 I want to hear everything that happened today. It seemed 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:35.519 as if you were in multiple places at once, hearings 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:40.320 on guns, hearings on the Corrupt Politicians Act. And there 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.519 was a charge that while you were tweeting during all 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.159 of this, that it was just your staff sort of 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:48.600 tweeting on your behalf while you were in the Senate. 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:51.599 I have to ask, I know, you'll shoot straight here. 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.120 Were you the one tweeting? Oh yeah, that was me. 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.200 I was live tweeting. The look when you're in a 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:01.880 room with senator who are droning on and on and on, 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.560 particularly when they're reading from like staff has written a 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.080 couple of pages of like text for them to read. 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:12.160 It's a little bit like the student and Charlie Brown 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:16.160 listening to the teacher, and the teacher goes wa wah wah, 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:19.040 wah wah. And the truth of the matter is, like 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.600 most senators are on their phones and are scrolling through 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:27.280 email or text or this, being the social media world 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:29.600 that it is, I was on Twitter, and then of 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:33.920 course some lefty publications saw me on Twitter on c 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.480 SPAN and so tweeted about me being on Twitter on 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.120 c SPAN, and so I promptly retweeted them and said, yep, 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:43.479 that's exactly right, and they were sort of surprised, going, 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.320 holy crap, is he retweeting us. It's like, yes, I am, 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.000 and uh. And in fact that they made fun of 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.840 me because Amy Klobuchar was giving some long, long speech 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:57.280 that I suppose somebody somewhere listened to, but but nobody 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.200 in the room did, and they were shocked that I 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.160 was on my phone for that, and I just said, well, 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:06.080 she's still reading her statement even after your tweet. Well, 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:08.799 you obviously wear many hats. You're a senator, you're a 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.560 podcast host, you are often the booking producer on this show. 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:14.200 So I'm not at all surprised to hear that it 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.359 was actually you on Twitter. So you were covering it. Actually, 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:19.080 I mean, we're joking about the Twitter of it all, 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:21.840 but it is important that you were communicating this and 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.679 shedding light on what was going on. You were in 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:31.280 multiple places. Yeah, look, and there's value to that. I was. 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.399 So the day started off, I went to a TV 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.120 studio and did did Fox News in the morning to 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.919 talk about the markup that was coming on HR one 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:45.560 or S one, which is the big election federal takeover 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:49.480 of elections bill that is the top priority for Democrats. 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.920 And what we had today was what's called the markup. 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.840 The markup is when you actually take the bill and 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.240 you consider amendments to it, and the rules could comte 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.480 in the Senate as the committee that has jurisdiction. I'm 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.720 on the Rules Committee. Actually, interesting bit of trivia. I 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.200 was put on the Rules Committee as a brand new 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:16.240 baby freshman, which is relatively unusual for newly elected senators 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:18.919 in my case nine years ago, to be put on it. 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.119 And actually the reason Mitch McConnell asked me to serve 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:25.360 on the committee is that the Rules Committee has jurisdiction 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.400 over campaign finance reform legislation. And he asked me at 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.480 the time, he said, look, when the Democrats come with 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.520 some horrible campaign finance legislation, Ted, I'd like you to 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:37.760 lead the fight against this, and that's sort of like, 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.240 you know, throw me in that briar patch. I am 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:44.120 eager to defend the first Amendment to stop the Democrats' 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.840 efforts to undermine democracy, and so I was happy to 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:50.880 do it then. And this is the most dramatic time. 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:54.880 And so the markup started at ten am and it 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.400 wrapped up about seven pm. So it went about nine 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:02.280 hours straight and during the course of it, we had, oh, 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.320 I don't know thirty or forty different amendments. I filed 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.920 forty six amendments, and so we brought up amendment after 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:13.240 amendment debating the bill. The bill is a really bad bill, 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:17.040 and I do hope and think that the markup today 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.440 highlighted just how extreme, just how partisan the bill is, 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.760 and I think the Democrats ended up casting some really 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:31.080 bad votes today that underscores their top priority is staying 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.719 in power. What this bill is all about is keeping 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.960 Democrats in power for the next hundred years, and they're 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:38.920 really trying to rig the game to do that. And 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.640 I think the most important function of the markup today 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.720 was to highlight how they're doing it. So you you 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:49.800 mentioned here the campaign finance angle. It actually sort of 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:54.280 surprised me because I had forgotten how broad this bill is. 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.039 When I think of S one HR one, we're calling 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:00.800 it the Corrupt Politicians Act. The In my mind, this 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:06.360 was about changing the rules for congressional elections and federalizing 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.320 those those rules that would ordinarily be made by the states. 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.600 But then you're reminding me there's a campaign finance aspect 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:14.480 to it. There. Could you just take us through a 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.160 little bit of specifically that portion, but but sort of 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.240 all the all the pieces of this legislation. Sure. So 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.840 this thing is nearly nine hundred pages long, and it 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:27.600 is every bad idea every left wing advocacy group has 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:31.320 had over the last twenty years to try to change 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.040 elections to make sure that Democrats always win. So what 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.240 does the bill do? Well, let's start with what does 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:39.600 it mean? HR one or S one. Nobody knows what 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.679 that means. HR one means it is the very first 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:45.800 bill filed by Democratic leadership in the House. S one 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:49.679 means it's the first bill filed by Democratic leader leadership 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.479 in the Senate. It means it's their number one priority. Yeah, 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:54.839 and so just pause for a second and think about 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:58.960 what the Democrats are telling you. Their top priority isn't COVID, 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:03.039 it's not back nations, it's not jobs, it's not reopening schools. 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.760 Their top priority is staying in power, and that trumps 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:11.240 everything else. Now, what does this bill do. Well, it 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.160 federalizes elections. It puts the federal government in charge of 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:18.920 elections across this country. One of the things it does is, look, 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:22.840 we've got fifty states. States generally administer of elections and 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:27.960 they pass laws governing how elections are handled. This bill, 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:29.800 which many of us are calling, as you noted, the 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:34.880 Corrupt Politicians Act, what it does is it essentially repeals 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:40.600 virtually every state voter integrity law. Now what does that mean. Here, 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:45.960 here's some examples. Voter ID twenty nine states require some 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.120 form of identification to vote. You think about it, it's 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:53.200 a common sense provision. Seventy five percent of Americans support 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:58.320 photoid for voting. By the way, that's true, sixty percent 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:02.920 of Democrats support photo for voting. Seventy seven percent of 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:07.680 Independence support photoid for voting. Sixty percent of African Americans 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.480 support photo ID for voting. What does the Corrupt Politicians 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:13.440 Act do It repeals every one of those laws. It 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:18.720 makes it illegal for a state to require voter id Likewise, 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.320 ballot harvesting, all right, what is ballot harvesting? It is 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.120 a particularly corrupt practice where you send in a paid 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:29.600 political operative to collect the ballots of other peoples. Why 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:33.920 is that corrupt? Well, because let's say you have an 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.720 operative from the DNC, the Democratic National Committee, who goes 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:39.720 into a nursing home where you have a bunch of 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:41.960 people who are elderly, some of whom may not even 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.320 be capable of making decisions. With ballot harvesting, these operatives 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.840 help them fill out their ballots, including people that may 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:53.040 not be competent to make those decisions. And it invites 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.560 voter fraud because number one, they can prompt the people 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.720 to vote the way the operative wants them to. Number Two, 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.960 if the operative sees how they vote, Let's suppose you 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.120 have a senior who stubbornly votes for Donald Trump instead 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.880 of Joe Biden, the corrupt operative can take that ballot 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.240 and throw it in the trash. It is dangerous when 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:17.600 you have an employee of a political campaign handling the 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:21.160 ballots of other people. That's why thirty one states either 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:25.400 prohibit or restrict ballot harvesting. What does the Corrupt Politicians 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.280 Act do? It repeals every one of those restrictions, and 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:35.120 it mandates ballot harvesting. Likewise, this bill mandates universal mail 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.600 in ballots, It mandates drop boxes everywhere, both of which 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:44.520 are very susceptible to fraud. It also provides for welfare 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.520 for politicians. Is this one of the more egregious elements 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:51.000 of it? That it provides for a six to one 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:56.679 federal government match for money raised in increments under two 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.120 hundred dollars. So if you raise two hundred dollars, the 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:01.839 federal government gives you twelve hundred dollars to match that. 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:07.360 That is a particularly idiotic proposal, as I observed at 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:09.240 the hearing today. If you think of all of the 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.480 populations in need of welfare and need of subsidies, in 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.640 need of supports, politicians are really near the bottom of 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.599 that list. Yeah. And I'll tell you, Michael, the provision 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.800 that I think is most naked, that makes most obvious 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.640 what the Democrats are doing is the Federal Election Commission. 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:30.840 It was established after Watergates. So Watergate was a big scandal, 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.760 campaign finance scandal. They created the Federal Elections Commission in 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:39.439 the nineteen seventies. It's a bipartisan commission. There are three 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.480 Democratic commissioners, three Republican commissioners. The reason they did that 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:46.240 is they wanted it to be for the FEC to act, 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:48.839 it had to be bipartisan agreement. You had to get 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:51.480 at least four commissioners, meaning you had to get at 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.760 least one from the opposing party. What does the Corrupt 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.640 Politicians Act do. It turns it into a partisan organization. 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:02.520 It leaves it with three Democratic commissioners and only two 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:07.000 Republican commissioners, which means the FEC becomes essentially the attack 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:12.080 dog for Chuck Schumer. And it's designed. What the intention 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.240 of this would be is to use it to target, 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:19.360 to persecute, to investigate Republicans, and by the way, to 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.360 do it in all likelihood a month or two before 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.880 the election, right when they're vulnerable, to have an October 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.320 surprise of guess what, every Republican in a close race, 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.480 the Chuck Schumer Federal Election Commission is going to announce 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.199 an investigation into some scandalous aspect of them. It's a 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:39.040 really bad idea, and that's what this bill does. So 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:44.520 it's amazing because I've been reading the headlines on this bill, 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:47.640 but when you see it all laid out all of 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:52.480 these things, it's it's such a major bill. And yet 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:55.160 that's not all you were doing today. There was another 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:57.360 major issue. So while the Democrats are trying to ram 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.280 down which I think you put it very well, the 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.080 most radical legislation you've seen in your time, there perhaps 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:06.599 perhaps rivaled only by the Equality Act or something like that. 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:09.120 And Michael, it's much more dangerous than the Equality Act 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.880 because it's designed to rig the system. So two of 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.960 the provisions that are most dangerous in the Corrupt Politicians Act. 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:22.199 So one is automatic voter registration. So any individual that 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:25.079 has any interaction with the government. So if you get 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.560 a welfare check, get an unemployment check, if you get 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.640 a driver's license, if you go to a state college 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:37.079 or university, you're automatically registered to vote. Now, that is 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:41.400 intended to and will, in fact, if it's enacted, register 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:46.680 millions of illegal aliens to vote, because there are anywhere 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.800 from eleven to twenty million illegal aliens in the country. 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:55.800 The estimates vary a large a significant percentage of that group. 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:57.679 We don't have an exact estimate, but it is in 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.160 the millions by any way you assess it is interacting 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:03.720 with the government. And all of these who are interacting 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:08.160 with the government, this bill is designed to automatically register them. 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:13.199 Not only that a number of states have very reasonable 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:17.480 provisions that provide that criminals can lose their right to vote. 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.959 That if you commit a horrific crime, a number of 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.240 states have said you can forfeit your right to vote. 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:26.240 What does the Corrupt Politicians Act do. It strikes down 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.920 every one of those laws. It says criminals the instant 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:33.679 they're released from jail can vote. And the reason for 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:38.200 this is Democrats have decided, and I think quite reasonably, 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:43.839 that having millions of illegal aliens vote, and thousands or 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.840 hundreds of thousands or millions of criminals and felons vote, 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.319 that those individuals are likely to vote for Democrats and 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.200 it will benefit Democrats. This is all about keeping Democrats 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.160 in power. So during the course of the day, in 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.320 the markup, as I said, I had forty six amendments. 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:05.160 I introduced an amendment to provide that before anyone is 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.599 automatically registered to vote, you have to verify citizenship, that 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:12.280 you're not registering someone illegal. Of course, every Democrat voter 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:15.559 know that amendment was voted down. I introduced another amendment, 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:20.040 so a portion of this law grants amnesty, grants immunity 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.640 to any illegal alien who's illegally registered to vote because 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:27.080 of the automatic registration. Look at the bill anticipates millions 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.760 of illegal aliens are registered to vote, and so it 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.360 grants amnesty. It says they're not liable. There's no criminal liability, 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:38.760 no civil liability. They're completely immune from any exposure for 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.240 being illegally registered to vote. I introduced it amendments to 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.720 just strip that. That is so radical, and I feel 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:49.400 people may not appreciate that. On the one hand, Democrats 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:54.160 are saying this bill absolutely will not register illegal aliens 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.720 to vote, and also when they are, they'll get amnesty 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.160 for it. That's in the same bill. It is the 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:04.120 same bill. The Democrats argued, no illegal aliens will be 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:05.960 registered to vote. I said, great, then you should vote 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:08.760 for my amendments. If it's not registering anyone, then you 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:10.640 ought to welcome these amendments. They're like, no, no, no, no, 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:15.079 we can't have that. Have the amendments so I introduced 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:17.760 a narrow amendment, just say, let's get rid of the amnesty. 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.200 If nobody's registered illegally to vote, what's the value of 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.200 creating a special amnesty for people who are illegally registered 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:27.200 to vote. Every Democrat voted no. They voted it down 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.800 on the criminals. All right, here's a very funny thing. 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:35.000 So I had a whole series of amendments allowing states 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:39.720 to prevent criminals from voting. The first amendment that got 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:44.560 called up was from Senator Hyde Smith, and it was 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:49.240 an amendment focused on child molesters, and it said, people 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:53.440 that commit crimes against children, states can prevent them from voting. 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.160 And one of the things I did going into this meeting, 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.840 I sat down before the markup with Mitch McConnell. I said, 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.520 down with Roy Blonde, who's the ranking Republican on the committee, 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:04.840 and we lay it out a strategy for fighting this. 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:06.640 And so I drafted a whole bunch of amendments. And 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.120 one of the things I did is gave a number 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.000 of amendments to other Republican senators for them to drive forward. 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.840 So Cindy Hide Smith, Senator from Mississippi, introduced this amendment 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:20.520 that said, if you've committed a crime against children, states 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:25.360 can prevent you from voting. Miraculously, Michael, this amendment passed, 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:29.480 and Angus King, who is an independent from Maine, although 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.840 he votes exactly like a Democrat, he voted yes. He said, 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:34.480 I'm a parent, and so if you commit a crime 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:39.160 against kids, states can say you can't vote. And I argued, forcefully, like, 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.120 why is it Democrats think our democracy would be better 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:45.440 if child molesters were voting. When I think of what 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.720 the country needs, the enlightened views of child molesters is 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.720 not high on the list. So once Angus voted for that, 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:55.840 and he's like, well, you're not going to have a 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.120 whole bunch of other amendments onto other crimes. And I said, well, yeah, 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:00.640 I do have a whole bunch of others, but I'll 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:04.560 just do one. So I pulled up mine, which was murderers. 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.720 I said, okay, you've agreed child molesters. States can say 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.880 they can't vote. How up murders people convicted of the 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:14.480 felony a murder. Angus King voted, noted that the Democrats 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.080 voted it down. So every Democrat of the committee voted 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:22.320 that it should be illegal. For states to say murderers 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.120 can't vote. That that's how radical these guys are. Well, 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.600 and it's not even to say, because people will you 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:33.920 confuse the federalism of it all. All you're suggesting here 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.360 is that states should have the right to determine whether 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.400 or not murderers can vote. That even that was too 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:44.280 much for the Democrats. Yeah, to be clear, my amendments 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:49.160 were not requiring a standard, whether it is photoid for voting, 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:53.360 whether it is barring criminals from voting. Under the Constitution, 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:58.400 the principal responsibility for those decisions of the states. Now, 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.720 I will say this in discussing it, there is an 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:04.080 argument that some on the writer making, which is that 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.600 this whole bill is on constitution. I actually think that 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.480 argument is probably not right. That the way the Constitution 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:17.800 is drafted, the states have significant responsibility for structuring elections, 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:22.240 but Congress also has the authority to promulgate standards, and 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.000 so it's a concurrent jurisdiction. So I think it is. 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.080 I don't think it's a valid argument to say Congress 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.119 can't legislate here. What I do think is a valid 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:36.480 argument is that Congress shouldn't be repealing the laws of 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.119 twenty nine states when it comes to voter ID thirty 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:43.480 one states when it comes to restricting ballot harvesting, that 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.880 Congress should respect the state laws that in turn reflect 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:51.120 the values of their citizens. This is an important point 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:53.600 because there are a lot of conservatives, I think, who 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:55.080 just want to say, oh, well, we don't need to 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.920 worry too much, because because the courts will strike it down, 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.560 and so you're making the point, actually that might not 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.600 be a bulletproof argument. But then there's also the practical 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.080 political reality here, which is that when we rely on 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.440 the courts very often we're disappointed. So probably we're gonna 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.000 want to fight against this now. Well, and it's worse 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.680 than that. I don't think the courts will strike this down. 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:21.760 And here's why. If the Corrupt Politicians Act passes into law, 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.399 it will be because the Democrats have ended the filibuster, 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:29.200 because they have rammed it through on fifty votes. It 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.159 will be because Joe Manchin and Christen Cinema gave in. 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:37.280 If that happens, the Democrats will also pack the US 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.600 Supreme Court. They'll put four left wing justices on the court, 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.639 and a packed Supreme Court with four left wing justices 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.720 will uphold the Corrupt Politicians Act. So the current Supreme 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:54.080 Court would certainly strike down significant elements of this bill, 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:57.840 but a packed Supreme Court with four new left wing 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:01.720 justices will rub or stamp this. And so the filibuster 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.520 is the whole ball of wax in terms of stopping this. 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.680 And this is really about, you know, Michael, if you 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:10.520 look at what the Democrats are trying to do, I'd 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:14.920 really break it into two baskets. What is bad policy? 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:16.960 They want to do things that are just bad policy. 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:21.719 Massively high taxes, massively high regulations, open borders, massive trillions 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.840 of dollars in spending. All of that is bad, it's harmful. Yeah, 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:27.160 but all of that can be undone. If Republicans take 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:30.360 majorities again. We can cut taxes again, we can cut regulations, 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:32.800 we can try to cut spending all the Historically that's 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:38.040 harder to do. But bad policy can be undone. There's 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.240 a whole separate, separate category that the Democrats are trying 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.800 to do that is rigging the game, that is changing 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.600 the rules. And what falls into that HR one the 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:53.360 Corrupt Politicians Act, making DC a state to get two 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.680 new Democratic senators and packing the US Supreme Court, and 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:00.800 those are designed to change the rule because I think 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:04.640 Democrats believe if they enact those, they stay in power 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:08.159 the next hundred years. That Republicans can't win if millions 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:11.359 of illegal aliens and millions of criminals are voting. And 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:13.399 that's why they want to do it, particularly if you 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:18.800 have a partisan federal election commission that is a political 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:22.280 weapon going after Republicans at the behest of Chuck Schumer. 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.760 They believe, I think quite reasonably, that that will ensure 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.280 they win for a long time to come. That's why 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.840 this is the whole edgelata. Senator, you've sufficiently depressed me 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.480 about the corrupt politicians act. So now, because a wise 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.480 man once said that it is always darkest before it 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.760 goes totally pitch black, we have to address the other 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:45.480 topic that you were working on today, which is the 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:50.400 gun grab. Democrats are trying to pass big gun control. 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:52.639 You were there, you were in the room. What's it 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:54.720 look like and how do we stop it? Well, it's 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.000 the Constitution Subcommittee, the Senate Judiciary Committee. I've been the 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.560 chairman of that committee for a number of years. I'm 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:02.560 now the ranking member because we're in the minority, so 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:06.320 center Richard Bloomenthal from Connecticut is now the chairman. He 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.119 had a hearing on so called ghost guns. I mean 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:11.280 you said it's always darkest before it goes pitch black. 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:13.600 I guess it's fitting that pitch black is when the 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:17.359 ghosts come out. I showed up. Irritatingly enough, this hearing 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:20.159 was at the exact same time as the markup for 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.520 the Corrupt Politicians Act. So what I talked about on 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.479 the hearing unquote ghost guns and what is a ghost gun? 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:28.520 I mean, to be honest, who the hell has heard 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:30.040 of a ghost gun? I mean, you want to talk 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.080 about a made up phenomenon, and it's designed to be 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:35.920 really scary, like, oh, ghost guns? What? What? What the 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:39.520 heck are those? They're handmade guns. They're they're people, they're 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:43.720 hobbyists who make handmade guns. They make guns from kits. 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:47.920 They order different kits online and they assemble them. And 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:50.600 the reason this is a made up problem is there 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:57.000 is zero evidence, like, like nothing, nada, that handmade guns 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.119 are producing any violent crime at all. Like it It's 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:04.360 a totally made up And so I kind of unloaded 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:06.760 on the Democrats this morning, and I said, look, you've 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:09.880 got a hearing on a totally bogus threat, but it's 0:22:09.920 --> 0:22:13.840 designed to be scary and frankly, they're taking advantage of 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:18.440 ignorant liberals who don't really know anything about guns and 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:20.680 a ghost gun that they want to use a term 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:23.800 that sounds really frightening. Yeah, but I said, what are 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:26.880 you next going to hold a hearing on civil war 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:30.520 replica canons? I mean, they're not being used in crimes. 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:32.840 You want a hearing, You want a hearing on gun crime. 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:34.520 Gun crime is a serious problem. How about have a 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:37.640 hearing on Chicago and New York and Philadelphia and how 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:40.639 left wing gun control laws aren't working. That's actually a 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:45.159 real hearing. But they don't want to do that. And 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:48.320 what I talked about also in my opening comments, I said, listen, 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:51.040 why is it the Democrats are trying to do this? 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:53.919 Because number one, their objective is not going after actual 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:57.480 gun crime. It is stripping the Second Amendment rights from 0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:00.399 law abiding citizens. That the people that build homemade guns 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:04.200 are collectors. Frankly, if you're a gang banger in Chicago, 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:07.720 you're not making a homemade gun. You're buying an illegal 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:09.879 gun on the black market that you're murdering people with. 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:13.200 I mean that's where the guns come from. But here's 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:16.359 what this is all about. And it was interesting Bloomenthal 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:19.480 at his opening statement, he said, look, these are untraceable, 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:25.080 and untraceable is meant to be scary. They want to 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:28.399 be able to trace every firearm in America because they 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:30.600 want a registry of every firearm in America. And I 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:33.320 put it out. I said, listen, Heidi and I own 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.200